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U.S. men barely get past France

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- Three wins from gold, and still no reason to think it will be easy for the U.S. men's basketball team.

Basketball

Klay Thompson ended an Olympic-long slump with seven 3-pointers and 30 points, and the Americans needed almost all of them to hold off France 100-97 on Sunday.

The U.S. won its 50th straight tournament game, but the last three have been nothing like most of the previous 47.

Winning by three for the second consecutive game, the U.S. improved to 5-0 and clinched first place in Group A. The Americans open quarterfinal play Wednesday, still the favorite but looking as beatable as ever under Mike Krzyzewski.

Their opponents couldn't be determined until the completion of play Monday in the log-jammed Group B, where all six teams are still alive. The U.S. will play whichever team finishes fourth.

"This isn't a tournament that we're going to just dominate," U.S. guard Paul George said. "There's talent around this world and they're showcasing it. For us, it's just figuring out how we're going to win. We're having spurts of dominating, but we're just not finding ways to put a full 40 minutes together."

Nando de Colo and Thomas Heurtel each scored 18 points, carrying France while Tony Parker sat with a toe injury.

Kevin Durant scored 17 points after he took just four shots in the previous game, the Americans' 94-91 victory over Serbia on Friday. After pounding China and Venezuela to open the Olympics, the Americans pulled away late to beat Australia 98-88 before edging the Serbs when Bogdan Bogdanovic missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

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Women

U.S. 105, China 62

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- Geno Auriemma could only smile after his U.S. women's basketball team dominated another opponent.

It wasn't so much the final score of the game, but the coach was really excited about the record number of assists the Americans dished out.

Tina Charles and Brittney Griner each scored 18 points and the U.S. had 40 assists on its 46 baskets to beat China. The Americans were unchallenged in group play, winning the five games by an average of 40.8 points.

, eclipsing the 100-point mark in four of them.

"When you have 40 assists, that means something," Auriemma said beaming. "I talked to a team about that. There can't be anything better in the game of basketball then when you get an assist. When you know that you made it possible for one of your teammates to get an easy basket, that's basketball. Can't play it any better than we played in the first half that was fun to watch."

It was fun for those playing as well.

The U.S. is on a record-setting scoring pace averaging 104 points, just above the 102.4 mark set by the 1996 team that started the run of five gold medals and 46 consecutive Olympic wins.

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